Item IV/iv/15 - The Works of the late Aaron Hill, Esq.

HILL, AARON, son of George Hill, Malmesbury, Wilts.; b. 10 Feb 1684/5; at school under Knipe (Cibber, Lives of the Poets, 1753, v, 253); earned additional pocket money by performing “the tasks of many who had not his capacity” (Cibber, op. cit. ); left at age 14; travelled in Near East 1700-3; travelling tutor with Sir William Wentworth, Bart., in Italy c. 1709; Master of the Stage, Drury Lane Theatre 1709; Manager of The Opera, Haymarket 1710; produced Rinaldo, the first of Handel’s operas to be performed in England, 1711; obtained patent for extracting oil from beechmast 1713, but this speculation failed; engaged in long controversy with Alexander Pope, and corresponded with Samuel Richardson; author of plays, operas, poems and pamphlets; his Works were published in four volumes, 1753, and his Dramatic Works in two volumes, 1760; m. 1710 Margaret, only dau. of Edmund Morris, Stratford, Essex; d. 8 Feb 1749/50. Buried West Cloister, Westminster Abbey. DNB.